Elon Musk takes over Twitter, says ‘the bird is freed’

NEW DELHI: According to Elon Musk, the riches person on the earth, social media platform Twitter, whose logo is a bird, is free now.
“The bird is freed,” Musk said in a tweet after taking control of the social media platform.
On late Thursday, Musk completed the $44 billion takeover on the eve of a court-appointed deadline to seal his on-again, off-again deal and immediately fired its Indian-origin CEO Parag Agrawal, as well as the company’s other top executives. Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal and legal affairs and policy chief Vijaya Gadde were also among those who were fired by Musk.

According to a report by Reuters, Parag Agrawal and Segal were in Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters when the deal closed and were escorted out of the office.
For humanity and civilization
Musk tweeted earlier in the day that he was buying Twitter “because it is important to the future of civilization”.

“The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence,” Musk wrote, in an unusually-long message for the billionaire Tesla CEO who typically projects his thoughts in one-line tweets.
He continued: “There is currently great danger that social media will splinter into far right wing and far left wing echo chambers that generate more hate and divide our society.”

Handsome payout for Agrawal and other sacked executives
Agrawal, 38, was appointed Twitter CEO in November last year after the social media site’s co-founder Jack Dorsey had stepped down.
An IIT Bombay and Stanford alumnus, Agrawal had joined Twitter over a decade ago when there were fewer than 1,000 employees at the company.

Sean Edgett, Twitter’s general counsel, and chief customer officer Sarah Personette were also fired by Musk
The executives Musk fired have received handsome payouts. Agrawal received $38.7 million, Segal got $25.4 million, Gadde got $12.5 million, and Personette received $11.2 million, according to Insider.
(With inputs from agencies)